rackofbadcds | Alternate title: Three Men and a Baby

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rochelle

Alternate title: Three Men and a Baby

Holy hell of a morning.

After Coach had gotten shot, the motherfucking mountain man, the one the other called Marshall, didn't waste time. The other woman quickly introduced herself as Jean, a nurse and Marshall's wife, and had barely started trying to stop Coach's bleeding when Marshall brought up the bunker. It was less of a reccomendation and more like a demand. With Coach bleeding as bad as he was coupled with Rochelle's condition, which he would bring up later, the faster they got out the better.

And it was just in time, because as soon as the four of them got out of the hospital and made their quick introductions. Well, introductions coupled with arguing, especially when it was brought up who had shot Coach. Jean was about to shut them up with the roar of a horde did it for her. It didn't take more than a second for them to decide what to do. They abandoned the van (temporarily, they hoped), carried Coach and Rochelle into Marshall and Jean's pickup truck, piled in, and drove the fuck out.

Coach managed to stay conscious, even with all the blood he was losing. Rochelle, though, was out hot (pun intended) in her feverish condition. Jean did her best with the both of them. She said there was a doctor at the bunker, a co-worker she escaped with before she found Marshall again, who could give them a lot better help. Otherwise, between driving and trying to stablize the others, Jean and Marshall didn't have much focus to explain themselves and the bunker. As soon as they were out of the woods, that story was being saved.

The horde finally caught up when they got to the bunker. The slow opening door didn't help. But ~~a crescendo later and~~ the door opened enough for them to crawl under, and all that's left was to shoot the zombies trying to do the same until the door slid closed, just as slowly.

It finally did, and Coach leaned against the wall. He panted, hard.

"God DAMN..."

Jean moved over to him and offered an arm. Marshall was already carrying the unconscious Rochelle in both arms of his own arms, seeing as he wasn't sure how good of an idea it was to haul a pregnant woman over his shoulders.

"Gotta agree with that shit." He grunted. "Doc better still be here."

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Rochelle nodded blearily. She watches Nick pick up their daughter. She holds her breath... until Selena starts to wake up with little whimpers and quiet cries -- promising to get louder. God dammit, she had just fallen asleep...

She watches them until they leave. Most of her wants to go, especially when her daughter is crying and off to get her first shots. Injection. Blood drawn. Whatever. But exhaustion was calling and her eyes were closing before the door even closed.

Selena fussed more. Tiny whisps of black hair on the top of her head were poking out as she wriggled as much as she could.

Travis gave a lopsided smile as he leads Nick down the hall.

"Whoops. Think I pissed her off." He glances up at Nick, "So how's being a Dad so far?"

"She likes her sleep." When she slept, that was. He cradled her close and tried to soothe her as much as he could, calm that fussing down. Yeesh... she had a set of lungs on her and he wanted to make sure the wailing didn't start soon.

"Not something I expected I'd be," he admitted. "But it's... good. Different."

"I noticed. Most babies do, if it helps" Travis said. "But I haven't met anyone younger than fifteen in more than a year. Don't think any of us had. But a lot of people here've had experience with them."

He opens the door into the med and ushers Nick inside.

"I know they're all more than willing to help out. None of us have seen a baby in a long damn time."

"Yeah, I know..." Nick had a problem with relying on people for help though, especially anyone outside of the group he came here with. Good thing Coach actually seemed to know a thing or two though.

"You ever think about leaving this bunker? Finding more people?" It was an unrelated question sort of, but he couldn't help but be curious. There had to be other, safer areas. Maybe more chances to start families or whatever the hell these people wanted.

Travis pulling up a rolling stool for Nick and sat down in another one nearby. On a tray next to them was a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a needle, which he started to prep.

At Nick's response, however, he looked up with a questioning expression,

"Why? This is the safest place I ever found, and we've made a community out of this place. Out of rescuing people."

With a damp, alcohol-soaked cotton swab in one hand, he held out for Selena.

"Then again, the last group of people we found was you. And that's only because one of us shot one of you."

Nick held Selena as carefully as he could while she was prepped for the needle, trying to be ready to soothe whaever crying would come after this. "I guess you're right. It's been a long time since anyone's even come close..."

Which either meant they were dead or they had found some other place to g. Hopefully? It was the latter, but Nick wasn't going to hold his breath.

"Just thought there might be other people out there... other families, maybe."

Travis carefully lifted the blankets up until he could untuck Selena's small arm. She was already quietly crying over being woken up, and he expected it was going to get a lot worse after he took her blood. He rubbed the alcohol-soaked cotton ball on her mocha skin and, with his free hand, took the needle.

"I don't doubt it. There's always somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Communities, gangs and bandits, barely held together military holdouts. I was out there for a long time before Marshall and I found this place. We had some hell of a luck."

Carefully, Travis leaned over and pricked into her arm with the needle. Selena was immediately wailing as red filled the tube.

"Aww, shhh, poor little thing. I know, it's not fun..."

"Yeah, same for us, I guess... ran into a lot of shit out there." Trusting the military hadn't been their smartest damn idea, obviously. He winced a little bit when Selena started wailing in earnest, shushing her softly.

Like he knew how to comfort the kid yet. He was trying though. "Hey, c'mon, it's okay... It'll be over before you know it."

When Travis had enough, he pulled the needle out and set it in its proper place. With that, he dabbed at her arm with a some cloth and started unwrapping a band-aid.

"I know, I know--you probably don't like me very much right now, huh? Good thing you got your Daddy here." He cooed. The small band-aid goes on her arm. It's pink, with tiny flowers dotting across it.

"There we go. See? Look at that."

When the band-aid was on, he pulled Selena closer, cradling her against him to try and calm her back down, one hand lightly stroking over her back. "There, see? C'mon, wasn't all that bad..."

Well, you know, except for the wailing part. "Do I need to stick around?"

The new band-aid was pretty, but Selena was wailing too hard to appreciate it. But Dad stroking her helped. Eventually, she started to calm her cries into hics and murmurs.

"You're not bad at that." Travis said with a smile as he stood up. "And nah. This won't take me long. There's only so much we can do with what we go."

"Yeah?" Well, that was good to hear. Nick felt like he was kind of stumbling along on this being a dad thing since they had her... but at least he managed to get her to relax. He nodded and made his way towards the door. "Alright, well, I'm gonna try to get her back to bed then."

Nick was hoping nothing bad came up on the test... that she was as healthy and normal as you could get all things considered.

"You can wait, if you want." Travis offered. "I'm only gonna be a few minutes."

"Yeah, alright." Nick nods and goes to settle back down, rocking Selena softly to quiet her down.

"Anything else you need to check while we're down here?"

"Not really. Just her blood." Travis turns around and goes to work on... whatever you do when you get blood. I don't fucking know, I'm BSing as hard as I can.

"Marshall's probably going to talk to Rochelle soon now that she's had the baby. Been talking about putting anyone who can fight on his--rotation. Scavenges, clearing out zombies, whatever."

Nick will just stand around then while Travis does his blood tests and stuff, soothing the baby.

And yeah, he kinda figure that was coming. "Yeah? Think she'll be able to handle it now?"

Travis shrugged.

"I never saw her fight. If she can handle herself, I'm not worried about her. I'm more worried about her." Over his shoulder, he tilts his head and nods towards Selena, who's finally started to settle. "What if she lost her mother? Or her father? Or both of them?"

"Trust me, she can handle herself. She's saved all of our asses plenty of times." That didn't mean he liked the thought of her being out there because Travis had a point.

"I don't know," he answers after a moment, shrugging his shoulders as he looks down at Selena, watching as she settles back down. "You think, uh... Jean would look after her?"

Travis paused.

"She and Marshall have wanted a child for a while now. I know they would. But that's not my point," he sighs. His eyes go back to his work. "Everyone's lost family in this hellhole. Make sure she isn't one of them."

And that was a hell of a tall order. Travis was pushing sixty--he knew that. But he didn't want to be one of those people who were just waiting to die. And he didn't want anyone else to be, either.

But that train of thought screeched to a stop when the results of his bloodwork started to come back. A few silent seconds passed. Then Travis leaned over the counter.

"Hold the hell on, that can't be right..."

"Jesus, Doc. I'll try, but..." Nick couldn't make that promise any more than anyone else. He didn't set out to die though, didn't put himself in danger if he could help it and neither did Ro. So here was hoping at least.

His attention was distracted from that worry though. That wasn't a good thing to hear, ever.

"What can't be right?"

"It's--"

Travis was too distracted and dumbfounded to finish that sentence. Yet another silence goes on for half a minute, probably too long for comfort. But finally, Travis turns around. He takes a good, long look at Selena, before his eyes slowly settle on Nick.

He sighs. He walks over to the nearby bed, and sits down.

"Before I say anything else, she's not Infected." His tone is suddenly somber. "And she's immune. But... well. Do you know what a carrier is?"

Thank Christ. He almost relaxed when he heard that she wasn't infected, but... then he had to go on, not looking any more hopeful than he had earlier really. Nick frowned slightly.

"Are you saying that's what she is?" Shit.

Travis goes quiet. He looks again to Selena. Reaching out, he gently tugs some of the blanket away from her face. She's calm enough now, eyes half closed and fidgeting as much as she can.

He nods.

"So, what does this mean, doc?" Nick can't help the edge to his voice, the worry coming to his expression.

"Going by the look on your face, you already know." Travis sighs. "Well. There aren't that many non-immune left to accidentally infect anymore. But there's always some. Not everyone here is immune."

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